City Council edges closer to supporting pseudoephedrine legislation

Oct. 16, 2012

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Abolish “Corporate personhood?”

Here’s the Corporate Personhood Recommendation proposed by council member Doug Burlison: “The City of Springfield will support the call for an Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Missouri and the United States Constitution to abolish corporate personhood; which establishes that only individual human beings, not corporations, unions, or any other collective entity, are entitled to inalienable constitutional rights; and that money is not speech, therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting freedom of speech.”

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City Council is one step closer to officially supporting statewide legislation making pseudoephedrine available by prescription only.

The Plans and Policies Committee, comprised of four council members, voted Tuesday to send a draft of legislative priorities to full council. The priorities include a recommendation supporting legislation limiting access to pseudoephedrine.

During a committee meeting, an effort by council member Doug Burlison to remove a prescription-only recommendation from a draft of the legislative priorities failed. Two other committee members present — Tom Bieker and Jan Fisk — voted to keep the prescription-only recommendation.

Committee member Jeff Seifried was not present.

“I think that will work to increase the medical cost for people that aren’t involved in that issue at all,” Burlison siad.

The city’s legislative priorities allow the city to lobby for specific policy positions at the state and federal levels.

Part of the discussion centered on the possibility of limiting the pill form of the medicine and not the gel form. Burlison said he has heard from community members that pills address allergy and cold symptoms in a stronger fashion than gel caps.

Police Chief Paul Williams, who was present at the meeting, said meth-making requires the pill form of pseudoephedrine. Council member Thomas Bieker, who has previously opposed a psueodephedrine prescription requirement, said after speaking with people within the pharmaceutical industry he is changing his position. He questioned Williams as to whether gel caps can now be used to make meth in addition to pills.

“I’ve heard that rumor as well, but nothing to substantiate or document that,” Williams said, adding that he can not say whether or not it’s possible.

The News-Leader, however, learned that the Drug Enforcement Administration says gel forms of pseudoephedrine can be used to manufacture meth.

“DEA scientific studies show that liquid, gel cap, and combination products are easily used as the source of precursor material and the pseudoephedrine/ephedrine from these products can be easily extracted with appropriate reagents/solvents,” a DEA rule from 2010 says.

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The committee meeting took place at noon. Later in the afternoon, the News-Leader asked Williams about his statement about the gel caps. He replied that he had confirmed that gel caps can now be used in meth production. He sent a note to Bieker explaining his findings.

On a separate but related front, Council is considering an ordinance that would require a prescription for pseudoephedrine sold within Springfield and will meet on the issue for the first time in early November.

Corporate Personhood

The committee also considered a proposal from Burlison to support amendments to the Missouri and United States constitutions abolishing “corporate personhood.”

The proposal was not in the draft legislative priorities but was attached to it. Burlison said the proposal is drawn from the organization Move to Amend, which advocates that only human beings are entitled to inalienable rights.

The amendments the recommendation calls for are designed to combat what supporters say are the harms of the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. The court found that independent, unlimited political spending by labor unions and corporations is protected speech under the First Amendment. The ruling repealed portions of the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, passed in 2002.

Discussion about the proposal was brief, and neither Bieker or Fisk expressed either support or disapproval of the measure. Instead, the committee voted to table the proposal. Burlison said he will bring up the proposal as an amendment to the legislative priorities during full council.

Other cities have passed resolutions expressing opposition to the Citizens United ruling, including Kansas City, Mo.

Seat Belts

Burlison and Bieker voted to strike a recommendation supporting a primary seat belt law, which would allow police to pull motorists over for not wearing a seat belt. Currently, police cannot pull over a driver if failure to wear a belt is the only offense.

However, Fisk voted no, and without support from a majority of the four-member committee, the recommendation stayed.

Bieker said his objection centered on the future unintended consequences of the law, which could give police greater power to stop vehicles, adding he has confidence in the Springfield Police under Williams’ leadership.

For his part, Williams said the intention of the law is not to create new means to stop motorists but is about public safety.